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In many cases, I've preferred the physical copies, although having the ability to go digital is nice. I've loved smaller games as digital, like most XBLA games, but for the most part I haven't touched Games on Demand.

On the other hand, I've gone completely digital with my PSP at this point. Its easier to go full digital with a handheld. But the 3DS is a different story. I'd love to go digital only for the 3DS as well, but a lot of retail games aren't available, and my biggest issue is that Nintendo doesn't have a proper account system. So at this point, until Nintendo figures it out, I only get VC games and games that are only digital releases in that format.

When it really comes down to it, I'd go fully digital in most cases if any of the major console/handheld makers did it right. When the digital price is the same or higher than what I could buy a physical copy for, I'll get physical. There is absolutely no reason that the digital price shouldn't be cheaper than the physical price, since they no longer have a lot of the added costs physical release entails. But right now they are too slow to release, too slow to drop the price, and too slow to get me interested.

And then there is the Vita. I'd go digital only there too, if I had one. But the price of the proprietary memory sticks are downright criminal. I balked at paying $100 for a 120GB hard drive for my 360 years ago, but $100 for 32GB is ridiculous. Its hard to consider going full digital with the Vita when the price of entry is that high.

The PC has a lot of well thought out and well designed models, both in Steam and GOG. I prefer GOG for lack of DRM, but Steam has its uses as well. The Steam model in particular would have made a lot of sense for the next console generation, I'm still shocked they didn't go full digital. Microsoft could have saved a lot of face if they had. I can see myself going full digital in the future, once the companies get their acts together and do it in a customer friendly way.

And in most cases, I'm ok with digital only releases. XBLA has been great, and I think its a cheaper way for distributing games that may not have been seen otherwise, like Unchained Blades and Ace Attorney on the 3DS.

Nowadays I prefer digital on my PC and portables, and physical for home consoles (unless of course it's a free game on PlayStation Plus). Once console hard drives get bigger, I'll probably get digital for every game I'm sure of unless there are some really cool physical goodies that come with the game.

I like digital for those good games I like, but can't really bring myself to buy at full price. Nowadays you see digital versions of those games popping up for $5 or so, so it's worth waiting. I prefer physical copies of games I really like.

I prefer to have the physical so I can keep it forever OR resale to recoup some of the cost. However, I think it's great to have older games available for digital download when it becomes impossible to get them in stores or costs an arm-and-leg online. But for something new? Never. I just don't see the point. It'd have to cost 80% less than physical retail to be a viable option to me.

If digital-only is the only way to get obscure things (Phoenix Wright, Senran Kagura, etc) then I'll go that route.

This right here. I had to go digital for Liberation Maiden, Crimson Shroud, Godhand, Odin Sphere, and a few others. I had to because I couldn't find physical copies anywhere. Anything to play the game...

I'm paranoid about getting digital, especially for PC. I once downloaded a game called Memento Mori only to find out it doesn't suit my OS, did everything from update my drivers to running as admin, the only thing I didn't do was change the PC...waste of $$. I asked for a refund and never got it... I like the feeling of browsing in a gaming shop and asking the counter staff weird questions, which isn't kind of experience you'd get with digital.

Nowadays, unless it's GOG I'm firmly in the "refuse to patronize" camp. I would honestly rather a game not exist at all than only be available through submitting to online checks. As you can imagine, I rarely use my PC for gaming anymore.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"What the f--- is a Shakespeare?"-Rico Valasquez, showing off why no one likes him.

Definitely digital for me. When I was younger I loved having the case/box/manual for all my games. But as I get older, I'm tired of carting around all this extra stuff whenever i move and recently garbaged a whole bunch if stuff. Plus I have had games get damaged for whatever reason. So now I only buy digitally.

I like digital releases, but I hate DRM. So, I like buying digital when there's no DRM (GOG), don't care if it's trivial to break (PSP), and I'm willing to put up with it if it's minimally intrusive and the distribution service provides various other features and conveniences (Steam).

In other situations, I vastly prefer physical releases and will only buy digital if it's the only way to get a game and the price is cheap.

What I find more fascinating is how quickly peoples' opinions have changed about digital distribution. Just a couple years ago you'd see polls like this where the vast majority of votes favoured physical copies. By the end of those first years, it shifted to more like 50-50. Now you often see digital winning out.

It depends on the game. If I can reasonably afford the games in hard copy, I'll usually go that route. However, if a good sale comes along (e.g. some of the more awesome Atlus sales on PSP titles over the past few years), I'll go that route instead. Also, as much as I like collecting retro hardware, I was more than satisfied to download several PC-Engine and Neo Geo games when they turned up on Nintendo's Virtual Console with reasonable price-tags.

I'm in the "Better than nothing" camp mostly for the reasons Shaymin and Clix listed. That, and having relatively crappy download speeds at times. If more games like Phoenix Wright or Trails in the Sky's only hope of localization is digital distribution, then I'll gladly support them.

Looking back, the one time I bought digital this year it bit me with not having a Club Nintendo account at the time of purchasing Fire Emblem: Awakening. Hopefully the SD card that came with the 3DS has enough blocks to support both Fire Emblem and Phoenix Wright, otherwise that decision is gonna end up costing me twice, heh.

Since my ps3 stopped reading game disks a month ago, i'm stuck with digital only till ps4 arrives. I don't mind digital games since i'm not a collector and only care about the actual games, not physical bonuses that might come with them (like statutes or art books).

One problem i have though is how unreasonably overpriced digital games are. Not just ones that are available digital but have a retail version available (like Tales of Xillia), but Digital only games like One Piece Pirate Warriors 2. That game is only available on psn in NA because it is subtitled, yet they are still pricing it at $50 when it comes out in september. That seems ridiculous to me considering they put no effort in dubbing it and its a dynasty warriors clone so there isn't that much more development put into gameplay either.

The other issue is aimed squarely at Sony NA psn. They have recently been very lazy with preorder options on digital games. There was no preorder option for Xilla when it released 3 weeks ago, so i was completely locked out of the preorder content despite still having to pay near full price for it digitally ($54.99). They similarly have omitted pre-orders for Saints Row 4 as well. So i may not get the bonus content for that as well when the store updates later today. This wouldn't have bugged me as much as it does, had these games and much more (like Assasins Creed 4, Watch Dogs, and One Piece 2) not been available for preorder weeks ahead of time on the EU psn store. So it just comes off as disorganized laziness from the NA branch to me. I'm really hoping this improves when ps4 launches.

Sorry for that long rant. >_<

"To die without leaving a corpse....that is the way of the Garo"PSN id: Ryumoau

I can pretty much guarantee it's that price because the licensing was expensive as hell.

Well, I'm not sure how Namco or Deep Silver would have licensing issue with their own games.

Ryumaru - Yeah, Koei's getting weird with the digital-only releases. I had to import Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires from Europe because it was also digital-only in NA (And yes, it's $50, unbearable for a title with no ownership rights and only $9 than it cost me on ebay). Hopefully One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 will have a physical European release so you at least get some measure of ownership for your $50/$60.

This reminds me, I gotta go order Vampire Resurrection off ebay and see if Chronicles of Mystara is out yet on Play-asia... The 25th of this month for that last one, isn't it?

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"What the f--- is a Shakespeare?"-Rico Valasquez, showing off why no one likes him.

You could always get your PS3 fixed or replaced. If it's not a BC model, it's $99, and I'm sure searching around the internet will get you less official, cheaper outlets like 1repairstop.com

i really considered getting it repaired but with ps4 so close to release, i just couldn't bring myself to spend that much to fix this older system. I rather just wait it out and hope Sony's Gaikai ps3 streaming service starts early next year.

"To die without leaving a corpse....that is the way of the Garo"PSN id: Ryumoau

i really considered getting it repaired but with ps4 so close to release, i just couldn't bring myself to spend that much to fix this older system. I rather just wait it out and hope Sony's Gaikai ps3 streaming service starts early next year.

I personally think people are putting WAY too much faith in the Gaikai streaming. I can't see that being very fun unless you're not playing games with any real-time combat in them. Still, if nothing else, I'm sure there'll be PS3 price cuts post-PS4, and it's still in Sony's best interest to continue offering PS3 support for quite a few years after.

Though I'm going to say that it pains me greatly to see people talk about older systems as though they were of less value than newer ones. Not gonna lie and say I'm playing my retro stuff all the time, but there's nothing that beats the feel of playing an actual NES cart when it hits ya.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"What the f--- is a Shakespeare?"-Rico Valasquez, showing off why no one likes him.